Category: Law Page 8 of 27

Story of the day, for sure:

While the N.S.A.’s operations in recent months have come under examination, new details are also emerging about earlier domestic-surveillance activities, including the agency’s attempt to wiretap a member of Congress, without court approval, on an overseas trip, current and former intelligence officials said.

[ . . . ]

And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant, an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be determined, was in contact — as part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 — with an extremist who had possible terrorist ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency then sought to eavesdrop on the congressman’s conversations, the official said.

I’d like to think that we’ll be getting more of the facts of that case shortly.  I’d also like to think that the every person at the NSA who thought that was a good idea will be gone, soon (of course, they won’t be).  But while the case above may be the instance that motivates Congress to care a bit more, this is why we should all care more:

Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.

How many times did we hear – from the White House, from Congress – that sufficient protections were in place to prevent exactly that?  Lies or stupidity.  You choose.  In either instance, no one should trust anything they say about these matters anymore, without corroboration and external checks.